Don Was interview in Forbes: More Wayne Shorter recordings in the pipeline

[Mark Stryker]

“I will say that you haven't heard the last of Wayne Shorter, let me put it that way. Wayne knew he wasn't going to be around much longer, and he earmarked a lot of stuff to be released.”

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2024/02/25/sunday-conversation-don-was-on-85-years-of-blue-note-and-the-dead/?sh=6c9e3e725398

[Eric]

Interesting article, he really strikes me as a great guy to be running the label.  I like many of the young artists on their roster.  The reissues are pretty cool too - the Tone Poets in particular are gorgeous and the are doing some obscure titles this year, which is fun.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

 Edited to reflect that I was replying to Eric's comments about the way Don Was is running the reissue program and NOT anything negative about any upcoming release from Wayne Shorter's archives.

12 hours ago, Eric said:

Interesting article, he really strikes me as a great guy to be running the label.  I like many of the young artists on their roster.  The reissues are pretty cool too - the Tone Poets in particular are gorgeous and the are doing some obscure titles this year, which is fun.

While I think a lot of the reissues coming out are really well done, I think the loss of the personal connection to a lot of the artists as they continue to leave us is going to result in more rejected sessions seeing the light of day. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, time will tell. But I do think it's a bit sad that some of these late artists' wishes are no longer being followed. For instance, Donald Byrd told Michael Cuscuna that he didn't want the live material from Montreux released but the current team decided it was a good idea to ignore those wishes and put it out. A lot of fans of his work from that era are very happy and sales seem to be good, so Blue Note did the right thing from a business perspective. I guess I wrongly thought that Blue Note was different.

I have to wonder if Wayne's rejected session is on the way now.

Edited February 26 by Kevin Bresnahan

[tranemonk]

9 hours ago, Eric said:

Interesting article, he really strikes me as a great guy to be running the label.  I like many of the young artists on their roster.  The reissues are pretty cool too - the Tone Poets in particular are gorgeous and the are doing some obscure titles this year, which is fun.

I hate that series, honestly. I got out of vinyl when I was a kid. I have ZERO desire to go back. I don't like any vinyl only release programs, unless the music stinks and then I don't feel bad. 🤣

[Dan Gould]

34 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

 

I have to wonder if Wayne's rejected session is on the way now.

If it is he apparently approved it.  But I am wondering more about live recordings after the return to the label more than archival items.

If there are Left Bank tapes coming because someone like Hank was contracted to the label that would be fantastic. But only on CD and I am not at all holding my breath.

[Ken Dryden]

I have no use for buying overpriced Tone Poet LPs of music I've owned on CDs for years with bonus tracks. My money is better invested elsewhere, as there is plenty of music I haven't heard that awaits me, even after a half century as a jazz collector.

Artists are frequently fed up with subsequent owners of labels issuing material they rejected at the time, John Fogerty has the right idea, as he destroys all unissued takes when they don't meet his standards. That way he will know that he won't be dealing with unapproved issues of rejects, unless he has a crooked engineer with a hidden hard drive or tape machine on the payroll, which is very unlikely, since it would make the engineer liable for future lawsuits.

Edited February 26 by Ken Dryden

[tranemonk]

16 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I have no use for buying overpriced Tone Poet LPs of music I've owned on CDs for years with bonus tracks. My money is better invested elsewhere, as there is plenty of music I haven't heard that awaits me, even after a half century as a jazz collector.

Artist are frequently fed up with subsequent owners of labels issuing material they rejected at the time, John Fogerty has the right idea, as he destroys all unissued takes when they don't meet his standards. That way he will know that he won't be dealing with unapproved issues of rejects, unless he has a crooked engineer with a hidden hard drive or tape machine on the payroll, which is very unlikely, since it would make the engineer liable for future lawsuits.

Preach on.....

[Mark Stryker]

Folks are of course free to rant any at time about labels issuing rejected materials contrary to artists' wishes -- I have mounted that soapbox myself. And folks are free to shake their fists at any and all manifestations of the vinyl boom -- though despite qualms about price gouging, I do not share your disdain and remain decidedly pro-vinyl, pro-Tone Poet, pro-analog (but not anti-CD).

However, I would urge commentators to keep their eyes on the ball as it relates to this particular thread. The most welcome aspects of the news I posted about Wayne is that he has expressly approved of the material Blue Note is going to issue. That's a win all around. I do not know what material is being considered, but  someone in a position to know tells me that the rejected 1970 date with Tyner, Vitous, Mouzon, etc. is not, at least, the first one slated for release.  Hard to believe there's anything in the deep vaults we don't already know about. I suspect what is on the docket are live tapes of the quartet with Perez, Patitucci, and Blade and/or some of the orchestral or chamber music projects in the last decades of Wayne's life. 

Coda: I will say that I would LOVE to hear the three rejected performances from the aborted Speak No Evil session with Billy Higgins, but if Wayne doesn't want that released, then it shouldn't be released. 

 

 

Edited February 26 by Mark Stryker

[Niko]

I think Don Was is doing a great job with Blue Note. He has a small roster of amazing young artists whose music is much closer to the spirit of the original BN than a lot of what happened under the label's name in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Plus, with the Tone Poets he found a way of marketing the magic of the classical BN albums to another generation of buyers. I am not in the market for highend vinyl reissues either. Yet the population of elderly cd buyers who've been into BN since the 90s or longer has really had ample opportunity to collect whatever classics they needed on the label. So, unless you dig deeper and deeper into the vaults, there really isn't much Don Was can offer to this demographic. And, afaik, whenever there was an interesting vault reissue by BN (like the recent Lee Morgan set for instance), cd buyers were not forgotten. 

[Ken Dryden]

The obvious solution to rejected performances is that the contract should specify that all of them are to be returned to the artist.

Both Gerry Mulligan and Marian McPartland spoke to me about their digust with rejected material being issued years after they had recorded for a record label.

As for the Tone Poets, I don't care, if the series is a moneymaker, they obviously should keep re-releasing the LPs.

I've felt the same way about record store day LPs, I would rather have a CD, though they aren't always offered immediately in that format. There was a delay before the Sonny Clark RSD LP set was issued on CD and there was extra material.

 

[JSngry]

Don Was seems to be doing ok from what I can tell. There's action on all fronts! 

[colinmce]

2 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

Hard to believe there's anything in the deep vaults we don't already know about. I suspect what is on the docket are live tapes of the quartet with Perez, Patitucci, and Blade and/or some of the orchestral or chamber music projects in the last decades of Wayne's life. 

Precisely. I know his post-60s work with WR and solo has a lot of admirers, but that is not a nut I have ever been able to crack. Without A Net is an exception, so I would enjoy hearing more from that band but it's certainly not something that would excite me too much. Salut if this is of interest to you but it's hard to imagine there's anything held by BN that could really move the needle for me at this point. 

Edited February 26 by colinmce

[JSngry]

Wayne's orchestra/chamber projects greatly interest me. Compositions. 

How far along did him & Esperanza get on that opera? 

[jlhoots]

Apropos of nothing, Was, Not Was was an interesting band.

[Dan Gould]

14 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Apropos of nothing, Was, Not Was was an interesting band.

I'll take your word for it.

"Walk the Dinosaur" was not, IMHO, an interesting song. 

Since that was the sum total of my knowledge of the current BN Pres, I was not exactly impressed when he got hired.

 

[sidewinder]

11 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I'll take your word for it.

"Walk the Dinosaur" was not, IMHO, an interesting song. 

Since that was the sum total of my knowledge of the current BN Pres, I was not exactly impressed when he got hired.

I remember him more for 'Out Come The Freaks', which I thought was pretty cool at the time. 🤡

'Out Come The Freaks' Video

Edited February 26 by sidewinder

[ejp626]

5 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I remember him more for 'Out Come The Freaks', which I thought was pretty cool at the time. 🤡

'Out Come The Freaks' Video

I think my introduction to Was Not Was was "Hello, Dad, I'm in Jail," which was the soundtrack to some very freaky video or film short.  I don't know if this actually ran as a sort of trailer before an art film (I would have seen in university) or maybe it was even at an art gallery.  I see there is some version up on Youtube, though I couldn't swear this is the version I saw way back when: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6bfpgTgRPk

In general, I liked their music, which was sort of alternative-lite.

[Rooster_Ties]

21 minutes ago, ejp626 said:

I think my introduction to Was Not Was was "Hello, Dad, I'm in Jail," which was the soundtrack to some very freaky video or film short.

Me too (re: “Hello Dad, I’m in Jail”).  Never exactly caught the Was Now Was bug, but for a couple months my senior year of college I had “Hell Dad” as the greeting on my answering machine (all 2 minutes of it).

[danasgoodstuff]

I think Don Was is doing well with BN:  high quality product both new and reissued, and they work the hype to get attention for their product without being too over the top.  I might or might not be interested in whatever Wayne might be forthcoming.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

On 2/26/2024 at 12:25 PM, JSngry said:

Wayne's orchestra/chamber projects greatly interest me. Compositions. 

How far along did him & Esperanza get on that opera? 

It was premiered complete, we need a recording or video.  

[Eric]

On 2/27/2024 at 12:19 AM, danasgoodstuff said:

I think Don Was is doing well with BN:  high quality product both new and reissued, and they work the hype to get attention for their product without being too over the top.  I might or might not be interested in whatever Wayne might be forthcoming.

I agree with this sentiment.  

[medjuck]

On 2/26/2024 at 4:41 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

Me too (re: “Hello Dad, I’m in Jail”).  Never exactly caught the Was Now Was bug, but for a couple months my senior year of college I had “Hell Dad” as the greeting on my answering machine (all 2 minutes of it).

I remember them featuring Mel Torme on one release. 

[Mark Stryker]

10 hours ago, medjuck said:

I remember them featuring Mel Torme on one release. 

They also had Frank Sinatra Jr. guesting on a record too. 

 

[JSngry]

Sweet Pea Atkinson always adds value. 

[Mark Stryker]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sweet Pea Atkinson always adds value. 

A unique personality. I met him a couple times but didn't really know him. Didn't say a lot unless you were close to him. Don loved him.

https://www.npr.org/2017/10/22/559036553/i-m-old-as-dirt-but-i-can-still-sing-sweet-pea-atkinson-on-get-what-you-deserve

Edited February 29 by Mark Stryker